THE ROSE FAMILY. 



235 



the plant being further characterised by its densely tomentose calyxes, 

 pedicels and branchlets. The other has obovate, or elliptical leaves, much 

 broader, therefore, and usually shorter than those of the preceding plant. 

 Moreover they are scarcely acute, dentate-serrate and of a yellowish green. 

 For further differences the inllorescence of this last form is nearly glabrous. 



GOAT'S BEARD. 



Fl miners : minute; dioecious, growing densely in panicled spikes. Calyx: five 

 lobed. Corolla: with five rosaceous petals. Stamens: numerous, exsertcd ; 

 filaments, thread-like. Pistils: mostly three. Follicles: glabrous, containing 

 usually two minute seeds. Leaves : with long petioles, twice or thrice pinnate, 

 the divisions with from three to seven ovate, or lanceolate leaflets, long pointed 

 at the apex, and cordate or tapering at the base ; sessile or with short petiolules; 

 bright green and glabrous, sharply and doubly serrate ; thin. Stems : erect, some- 

 what branched, smooth. 



Very numerous minute blossoms has the wind to ruffle when it catches 

 in a gust the feathery, panicled and white spray spread by this striking look- 

 ing goat's beard. Not all, however, of these plants cast about the same 

 light, for the pistillate and staminate flowers, being borne in two house- 

 holds, show necessarily their points of differences. Over a good part of the 

 country, as well as in the south, the plant seeks its home in woodland 

 places, and cannot be well confused, for the only other one of the genus is 

 a native of Japan. 



AMERICAN IPECAC. 



Porlcrdnlhus slipulatus. 



Floioers : growing sparingly in spreading, terminal panicles. Calyx : cylindric, 

 with five short teeth, persistent. Petals :\\(t., oblong, or linear-lanceolate, nar- 

 rowed into claws. Stamens: ten to twenty, included. Leaves: mostly three foli- 

 ate, at least the uppermost sessile, with foliaceous, broad stipules ; deeply toothed 

 and incised; yellowish green, somewhat pubescent. Stems: erect; simple or 

 branched ; glabrous. 



Somehow we have fallen into the way of thinking that plants throw the 

 whole of their spirit and energy into their flowers ; but often we see it gleam- 

 ing from such parts as highly coloured stems, or again in showy bracts 

 which underlie the bloom. More decorative and constant indeed are the 

 bright red stems of the Ipecac, when seen amid the wood's tangled growth. 



